Miracle On Grass

The incredible story of Rory helping a young star recover from a horrific accident

- Max Adler

TRADEN KARCH wasn’t necessarily the best player on the team, but the kid had a nose for clutch moments. Like his chip-in on the last hole, or holing a 40- foot bomb. First-year head coach Pete Chimarys had taken to calling him Big Shot Traden, and rather than disrupt the team mojo, he kept putting the slender towhead with the wavy putting stroke in the final group of the lineup. And because Traden’s easygoing manner was best-suited, or simply because they kept winning, he was paired with the team’s only girl, a strong player who outdrove many of the boys.

Though it was just a scramble format tap-in, Traden sank the putt that clinched the team’s berth to the PGA Junior League national tournament in Disney World. A television reporter arrived in time with her cameraman. No one could know then how these few seconds of footage – white jersey No 7 humbly retrieving his ball from the cup amid a mix of juvenile and parental cheering – would take on a life of its own.

That’s because Chuck Higgins of the PGA of America – who ran that regional playoff and whose duty it is to spread the gospel of “golf like Little League baseball” – had used the clip extensively in his campaigning. In the days and weeks after the accident, it wasn’t hard for Higgins to tell people who Traden was. He was the boy from the video.

“Here’s this kid on top of the mountain, and now he’s fighting for his life,” as Higgins said many times.